The mainland is considering banning officials from eating shark fin at banquets paid for by public money within three years - a prohibition environmentalists say would give a big push to global efforts to end the trade.

I refer to the Lai See item ('Unhealthy appetite for cruelty in world's shark-fin capital, June 5) on a recent petition to legislators in Hong Kong, which once again criticises Chinese people for eating shark fin. It is signed by 41 scientists.

TESTING THE WATERS When I was 12, my family moved to Dunedin, Florida, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf was my big blue backyard, the place where I first used a facemask to see sea creatures in their own world, not in the market or on a plate.

From California to Guam, the movement to end the consumption of shark fin is gaining momentum. Amid this discussion, I find striking the repeated assertion, cited in defence of continuing the practice, that shark fin is an important element of Chinese culture.